Mill Valley, California.
Typical home $2,178,610 (+10.2% in a year), asking rent $4,617 (+8.8%). San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$5,622 (+97%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $201,492 +10%
- $1,977,118$2,178,610 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $238,703 +12%
- $1,939,907$2,178,610 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Mill Valley$11,435
- California$3,997
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 30 years.
Typical home values in Mill Valley, CA rose 10.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Mill Valley, CA rose 8.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Mill Valley runs $10,355/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $10,694 in Oct 2023.
That is $14,972 a month against $4,617 rent: a $11,435 mortgage payment, plus $1,205 property tax and $2,332 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Mill Valley
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$14,972
- Renting$4,617
- Mortgage only$11,435
Property tax · $1,205/mo 0.66% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Marin County, CA
Insurance & upkeep · $2,332/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Mill Valley, Marin County, California
Mill Valley is a city of 14,231 people in Marin County. Half its households earn more than $206,212 a year and half less, against $149,091 across Marin County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Marin County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Mill Valley is a small city in Marin County where residents are older than in much of the country, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Household incomes run well above the county's, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Home values and rents are among the highest anywhere, and winters are mild, with little or no snow and plenty of rain through the year.
Work. Many residents work in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, or in shops. A good number work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one. Among the largest workplaces in town are Mill Valley Elementary Schools, The Redwoods, a retirement community with nursing care, and Safeway.
Things to do. Muir Woods National Monument, a protected area of old redwoods, lies in or beside town. A short drive away are the Presidio of San Francisco, which has gardens and open grounds, and Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, now a museum. Golden Gate Park, a large garden, is a longer drive away.
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- 5,688households
- 76%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 40%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marin County had 110,071 jobs in 2025, 0.8% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in December, with highs near 56° and lows near 42°; warmest in August, with highs near 83° and lows near 54°. About 44 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kentfield weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mill Valley
- Mill Valley Elementary SchoolsSchool district244FTE
- The RedwoodsRetirement homes with nursing care240
- Blithedale142
- Mill Valley100
- SafewaySupermarkets and other grocery stores73
- Mill ValleyMail and parcel delivery49
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 604 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mill Valley’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Marin County and the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA metro.
Mill Valley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mill Valley$2,178,610
- California$761,538
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Mill Valley listings, and the typical home goes pending in 14 days — the market is heating up.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Mill Valley14.60%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mill Valley61
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mill Valley30
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Mill Valley$2,116,132
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Mill Valley109.58%
Zip codes with a Mill Valley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mill Valley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.